Whiskey Galore! 1949 Compton MacKenzie wrote the novel and co-wrote the screenplay with Angus MacPhail, the director is Alexander Mackendrick. In the US Whiskey Galore! was called Tight Little Island. After this film Mackendrick directed The Man In The White Suit, his other well known films include The Ladykillers, The Sweet Smell Of Success and A Boy Ten Feet Tall. Angus MacPhail has 70 writing credits listed on the IMDb, starting with a scenario credit for the 1928 film Balaclava, and I've seen a few of them. One of the earliest films I've seen is the 1931 version of The Ghost Train, a film I've come to like a good bit. He wrote Trouble Brewing and To Hell With Hitler for George Formby and The Ghost Of St Michaels, The Black Sheep Of Whitehall, The Goose Steps Out, Go To Blazes and My Learned Friend all for Will Hay.
Basil Radford is Captain Waggett of the Home Guard. He's one of the few English people on the island of Todday in the Outer Hebrides. The town is made up but the basic story is based on a real incident.
In 1941 a ship floundered on the rocks near Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, before it sank the islanders took some cases of single malt whiskey off of the ship. The Wikipedia says there were 22,000 plus cases of whiskey on the ship and the locals saved 7,000. The locals in the film didn't seem to save that many.
It's a small island with not too many people, nothing much goes on. When the movie starts life has turned dour as they've drunk all the whiskey and none has come with the ship from the mainland. Captain Waggett has his work in the Home Guard to keep a few of them busy. When the ship flounders the towns people so want to rush out there to salvage what they can but it's the Sabbath and that's a no go. At midnight they rush out to get what they can, not knowing that the Captain has been onto the Customs and Excise. A special boat full of agents arrives on the island to find the ship sunk and all the cargo lost. The local barman is upset as it's cutting into his business so he rats them out. It's a scramble to save what whiskey they can.
There's plenty of action once the whiskey arrives and there's a fair number of gentle guffaws to be had. I was entertained and would want to watch it again. I didn't see any copies on YouTube. I ordered a DVD from the UK and it turned out to be a DVDr from the company that shall not be named. I've been seeing a lot of their DVDs of late.
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